Reverse Dungeon

Keith tried to cut down the traitor who had fastened himself to the priest like a leech.

The priest stopped him.

Keith swallowed his fury and warned the priest that he was being deceived. Still, the priest would not step aside.

He knew.

The man was protecting the traitor’s clan even knowing the truth.

An immense rage came over Keith. At moments like this, his blood ran cold, and his mind became unnaturally clear.

To him, the priest was someone to protect.

The traitor was an enemy to kill.

It had been that way ever since the day that had decided the course of his life—the day his parents were devoured by a demon, without so much as a splinter of bone left behind.

Small as he was, young Keith had squeezed into a narrow crevice where the demon could not reach him with its snout. When the demon finished tearing through the village, Keith alone remained. A passing order of Holy Knights found him and rescued him.

They were the Vatican’s elite.

The priest traveling with them touched Keith’s wounds with gentle, soft hands.

“You are a child blessed by God.”

Only later did Keith learn that his hair had turned a bright, almost white gold overnight. The power of the blessing that had awakened within him had shielded him from the demon’s malicious sense for living prey.

Keith did not cry. Even when he thought of his parents, no tears came. His heart only sank, endlessly. His throat felt packed full of stones.

If only his power had awakened a little sooner.

If only he had understood it sooner.

His parents would not have died.

His friends would not have died. The neighbors who had been like family would not have died.

That guilt carved itself into his heart as a deep scar. Keith grew into a Holy Knight who hated demons more than anyone. The Vatican that had saved him was good. The God who had blessed him was absolute.

With God’s power, he could erase the cursed demons from the world.

And the clan of traitors who had summoned them into it.

The priest with the innocent face claimed he was protecting three hundred people. When Keith checked his pulse, that claim proved true. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Three hundred.

The vague number called back the village where Keith had once lived.

For the first time, Holy Knight Keith let the traitor clan go.

He remembered the pulse of the black-haired priest he had held in his grasp. The black eyes, so full of will. The innocent face that did not match the fierce resolve beneath it.

He thought of the holy arrows he had fired.

A piece of trash who clings to traitors even after receiving God’s blessing.

Unbearable.

Hateful.

Something that should not be allowed to exist.

Holy Knight Keith wanted to kill him.

Strength gathered in his empty hand. Metal ground against metal with a chilling scrape. The joints could not withstand the force and bent. Broken metal sliced into his palm.

Ah.

Even if he killed that man, the dead would not return.

Keith barely forced down the impulse and returned to the Vatican.

After camping in the forest for several days, and only once Ian was certain Keith had truly left, Ian returned to the temple.

“He’s gone, right?” Ian asked as they crossed the ridge.

“Yes. I don’t see him.”

“If he catches us, we’re dead.”

“He’s not here,” Louise said firmly. “I’m sure.”

They nodded to one another and entered the elf temple. It was a ruin, yet the remaining statues and ornaments still carried something sacred. The game had not even had particularly good graphics, but in reality, the place was breathtaking.

Its dignity made a person hesitate before intruding carelessly. Sema, who tended to be easily influenced by atmosphere, shrank in on himself and spoke.

“I’ve been thinking... wasn’t that a curse after all? We suddenly ran into Knight Keith and almost died. How could that be anything but a curse?”

“No, no.”

Ian, however, had never been good at reading the mood, and he strode ahead. While Louise remained tense, Ian was thinking only one thing.

A ghost could totally pop out here.

The lower they descended the stairs, the darker it became. No one would have lit candles in an abandoned temple, and not a single thread of light reached inside.

Using his fire-making skill, Louise carried a small flame in his hand. The little torch, made from bundled twigs, lit only the ground around Ian’s feet. It did nothing to brighten the path ahead.

Basement level three. Reached.

“Let’s go in.”

No sooner had Ian given the order than something caught on his foot. He nearly pitched forward.

“Argh!”

The thing beneath his foot screamed and retaliated, shoving him back.

Ian almost caught his balance—only for it to yank him forward and pull him down.

He fell straight on top of the thing, landing in an unmistakably compromising position.

“What—what is this?!”

“Get off Lord Ian!” Louise flung the light to Sema and drew his bow.

“Whoa, don’t do that! Who points an arrow at someone just because he fell over? Ow, my leg. My head. I almost bit my tongue...”

A flippant voice echoed through the dark, and the light revealed the stranger’s face. Suspiciously, he was wearing his robe inside out. When Louise pressed the arrow closer, the stranger took the robe off on his own.

“I’m an innocent elf! An elf who got injured helping your party! Don’t threaten me. It’s scary!”

“Why is there an elf here?!”

The stranger’s ears were pointed. Startled, Ian grabbed them. For the first time, the elf looked genuinely surprised.

“How vulgar of you on our first meeting...”

“What are you talking about?” Ian asked, dumbfounded.

The elf pouted.

“An elf’s ears are an erogenous zone. Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t touch them carelessly?”

“Oh. I didn’t know...”

Ian almost apologized reflexively, then stopped. Was that really the issue right now?

Why was this elf even here?

“Who are you?”

“Oh, are you asking my name?”

The elf dusted off his robe and sat up properly. His face came into clearer view.

First of all, this elf definitely did not look like an extra.

With upturned eyes that seemed always to be smiling and a beauty mark on the bridge of his nose, he had an androgynous beauty about him, though his voice was unmistakably male.

They actually put effort into this character design.

The problem was that Ian had never seen this character in the game. Or, rather, there was one group Ian knew of that went around wearing robes like this...

“Are you a merchant?” Ian asked, just in case.

All the merchant characters in this game covered their faces with robes. Maybe the developers had found individual designs too much trouble. That was Ian’s guess.

The elf merchant nodded.

“Yes. You recognized me quickly. I suppose it was worth waiting for customers. Everyone mocked me and said I’d never sell anything here, but I knew better. To catch good customers, one must go to difficult places...”

“Why is there a merchant here? This isn’t even a dungeon.”

“A dungeon... Well, you could call this a kind of dungeon. There are traps everywhere. I was waiting here to rescue poor thieves who got hurt after breaking into the elf temple.”

The elf merchant sounded offended.

Did this guy just call us thieves?

He treated Ian’s party as thieves as naturally as breathing. But Ian was more concerned with something else.

Was this place a merchant spawn point too?

Since Ian had only played the elf route from time to time, he did not know. Out of curiosity, he asked,

“So, did you sell anything?”

The merchant smiled.

“No. I thought I could monopolize the market by establishing myself in a blue ocean, but this place turned out to be too blue. I was just about to pack up and leave because nothing was selling when you all arrived.”

This guy has zero talent as a merchant, doesn’t he?

He felt spectacularly incompetent.

Even so, Ian had no intention of letting a hidden character discovered in such a hidden place slip by. Incompetence did not matter. What mattered was the merchandise. Maybe he sold hidden items.

“What kind of items do you sell?”

“Want to see?”

The merchant cheerfully opened his bag. A shop window appeared before Ian.

[Elf Wood Branch]

[Apple Seed (Edible)]

[Strawberry Seed (Edible)]

[Potato Seedling (Edible)]

...

“......!”

Wait.

Ian could not believe his eyes.

Why is that here?

“Hold him down!” he commanded Louise.

Louise immediately tackled the merchant. Ignoring the “Ouch!” behind him, Ian sprinted down the corridor on the third basement floor. He reached the end.

It’s not here.

The Elf Wood Branch was not where it should have been.

“......!”

A scenario pieced itself together in Ian’s head.

Had this guy, thinking, Wow, nothing sells here, simply left after throwing away the Elf Wood Branch?

No. The merchant characters barely had any focus in the game.

And yet, despite being extras, they had given this one a whole backstory, starting with his character design.

Ian was utterly fed up with this game.